Tom Gede has a national reputation and distinguished background in federal Indian law. He represents clients in complex governmental matters in litigation, administrative and regulatory proceedings. Tom is also a Principal in Morgan Lewis Consulting, where he helps clients in high-profile matters involving state governments. A former senior deputy in the California Attorney General’s office, Tom was amicus coordinator and Supreme Court counsel, and argued cases in the US Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and numerous state and federal appellate courts.

Tom also served as executive director of the Conference of Western Attorneys General (CWAG), coordinating activities on key legal and policy issues, such as federal Indian law, energy, environmental, public lands, financial services, and telecommunications, for the attorneys general of 18 western states and territories. Tom has taught federal Indian law as an adjunct law professor at the University of the Pacific - McGeorge School of Law. He was also an assistant editor for and the author of the Indian gaming chapter in CWAG’s American Indian Law Deskbook (2d & 3d eds.). He has been engaged in Indian gaming and Indian law matters for more than two decades, having focused on the gaming compacts with Indian tribes, as well as complex civil and criminal jurisdiction, land, natural resources, water and law enforcement issues in Indian country. He has testified before Congress on American Indian and Native Alaskan issues, and was selected as an adviser by the American Law Institute (ALI) on the Restatement of the Law Third - The Law of American Indians. In 2012 he was appointed by Speaker John Boehner to serve on the United States Indian Law and Order Commission, where he examined criminal justice issues in Indian country and Alaska, resulting in the issuance of an important report to the President and Congress.

Awards and Affiliations

Marvin Award, National Association of Attorneys General

Jim Jones Award, Conference of Western Attorneys General

Member, Native American Editorial Advisory Board, Law360 (2017, 2019)

Admissions

California

US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Supreme Court of the United States

U S District Court for the Eastern District of California

Clerkships

Clerkship to Judge Edwin T. Regan of the California Court of Appeals for the Third Appellate District (1983 - 1987)

Education

Stanford University, 1970, Bachelor of Arts, With Distinction

University of California, Hastings College of the Law, 1981, Juris Doctor